In order to culture cells, a plurality of steps are carried out in order, including an extraction step in which the cells to be cultured are extracted from bone marrow fluid or other liquid extracted from a patient, a medium preparation step in which a medium suitable for the cells to be cultured is prepared, a primary culturing step in which the extracted cells are placed in a medium in a suitable culture vessel and subjected to predetermined culturing conditions, and a secondary culturing step in which the primary cultured cells are mixed into a body tissue supplement material followed by additional culturing.
This type of cell culturing has conventionally been considered to be carried out in a clean room for which particle levels are controlled after sealing the entire culture (see, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Application, Second Publication No. 3-57744, page 2, column 3).
Namely, an air flow is formed inside a clean room by which air flows from the ceiling towards the floor, and in the case dust particles and so forth are generated in each treatment step, the dust particles are carried towards the floor by the flow of air and then collected by a dust collector disposed beneath the floor. Robot arms are installed within the clean room, and cells can be transferred between each step.
However, in the case of carrying out all of the treatment steps within a clean room in this manner, since the space in which each step is carried out is continuous, dust particles generated in one step have the potential for contaminating cells allocated to the next step. Thus, in the case of simultaneously culturing a plurality of cells, problems result due to the occurrence of contamination between cells or contamination of added substances.
In consideration of the aforementioned circumstances, the object of the present invention is to provide a culture vessel and culture apparatus capable of reducing contamination by dust, bacteria and so forth in each treatment step using a simple constitution.